Salmon industry relief as Trump drops tariff threat
A huge sense of relief swept through the entire European and Scandinavian seafood sector last night after US President announced he was dropping his tariff threat against several countries over their stance on Greenland.
President Donald Trump. Photograph: Gage Skidmore.
The UK ( Scotland), Norway and the Faroe Islands were among the big farmed salmon producing countries, facing a big increase on export levies which threatened to all but wipe out exports to the US.
The news came after close of business last night so the industry has yet to comment but they will no doubt feel relieved.
But following his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday, he said a framework on a Greenland deal was now in progress.
The seafood sector has little to do global politics, but it found itself caught up in an international dispute which threatened upend the industry.
Salmon prices had plummeted on his tariff threat which he announced few days ago. The tariffs would have taken place in two phases – February 1st and the beginning of June.
Such a move would have made exporting to the US totally uneconomic and companies were starting to pull out and concentrate on Europe and Asia.
Only yesterday the monitoring organisation Statistics Norway reported a big drop in salmon prices in Week Three (January 12th and 18th) which were partly the result of the tariff threat.
They had slumped to NOK 83.65 per kilo, a price level not seen for almost three months. Other factors such as bad weather and a surplus of large fish also played part.
There is no doubt that the Trump change of mind will help restore some confidence in the industry and for the many salmon companies that view the United States as an important export market.
However, it should also be noted that Norway is already facing a 15% tariff while the UK and the Faroe Islands were handed a 10% levy imposed by Trump last year.
A further note of caution - Trump is totally unpredictable, frequently changing his mind. He could yet come back with further sanctions if the Greenland talks fail to achieve what he expects.
Salmon farm company shares shot up on the Oslo Stock Exchange this morning following last night’s news. Mowi, Lerøy and SalMar who all have operations in Scotland, all made gains. Companies suffered big losses when the extra tariffs were announced earlier this week.
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